Prehistoric ‘taskscapes’: representing gender, age and the geography of work

It is highly conceivable that prehistoric peoples richly narrated and celebrated their lives and relationship with their environment, but, with no written records 5 available and limited artefacts, recent generations have created their own narratives of the lives of prehistoric peoples. This article examines visual representations of prehistoric (‘Stone Age’) societies in popular science published in Britain from 1960s to the present. Stereotyping of gender and division of labour, including its spatiality, is an obvious example of the projection of modern societies’ 10 views onto the past and this is evident in the material examined in this study. Specific images often become ‘viral’ as uncritically repeated ‘schema’ (units of cultural transmission) that reinforce stereotypes ; for example, the ‘cave woman’ as ‘drudge’, trapped in the domestic sphere. Such stereotypes remain prevalent in popular science books aimed at children as well as adults

The map is the story: the U-shaped line in western news media coverage of the geopolitics of the South China Sea

China's claim to a large part of the South China Sea (SCS) is indicated by a specific cartographic convention, the U-shaped (or dashed) line, shown on its official maps. The line has become an important element in Western popular discourse concerning the geopolitics of the SCS. This paper argues that the cartographic re-presentation of the U-shaped line in the Western press contributes to an 'orientalist' conception that portrays China as 'other'; as aggressive and unwilling to 'play by the rules', and a portrayal of the whole region as potentially unstable. Its re-circulation may, however, work to China's advantage by reinforcing cartographic precedent and creating a specific 'geographic imagination' of the SCS. Maps are regarded as an important element in the 'spectacle of fear' propagated by the West, with the representations of the SCS shown to be part of a wider use of maps by the press to cover issues related to geopolitics and conflict

Total immersion: maps, landscape and memory

It has been argued that we live in a map immersed world, but that the ubiquity of maps may actually lead to their devaluation and perhaps, even a form of invisibility. This paper describes a project designed to share ideas about the value of maps and mapping with the people of the county of Kent (UK) during International Map Year (IMY). The project involved a team of geographers at Canterbury Christ Church University writing a series of articles on maps and landscape to celebrate the year, but also engage people with mapping

Putting the UN SDGs on the map: The role of cartography in sustainability education

Editorial

Globalization, Peace & Stability, Governance, and Knowledge Economy

A previous analysis of the impact of formal institutions on the knowledge economy of 22 Middle-Eastern and Sub-Sahara African countries during the 1996-2010 time period concluded that formal institutions were necessary, but inadequate, determinants of the knowledge economy. To extend that study, this paper claims that globalization induces peace and stability, which affects governance and through governance the knowledge economy. The claim addresses one weakness of previous research that did not consider the effects on the knowledge economy of globalization. We model the proposition as a three-stage process in four hypotheses, and estimate each hypothesis using robust estimators that are capable of dealing with the usual statistical problems without sacrificing economic relevance and significance. The results indicate that globalization has varying effects on peace and stability, and peace and stability affect governance differently depending on what kind of globalization induces it. For instance, the effects on governance induced by globalization defined as trade are stronger than those resulting from globalization taken to be foreign direct investment. Hence, we conclude that foreign direct investment is not a powerful mechanism for stimulating and sustaining the knowledge economy in our sample of countries. However, since globalization-induced peace and stability have both positive and negative effects on governance simultaneously, we also conclude that while the prospect for knowledge economy in African countries is dim, it is still realistic and attainable as long as these countries continue to engage in the kind of globalization that does indeed induce peace and stability. We further conclude that there is a need for a sharper focus on economic and institutional governance than on general governance as one possible extension of this paper

Decolonizing Geography: An Introduction by Sarah A. Radcliffe, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2022, 208 pp., £15.00(pbk), ISBN 9781509541607

Book review